Episode 168: The Front Porch Episode

Welcome to Episode No. 169 of the Off-Kilter Quilt Podcast (Where a Straight Line’s a State of Mind). My name is Frances, and I’m your hostess.

Download this episode (right click and save)


dave's quilt topThis is the quilt I’m making for our friend Dave, who’s in hospice (click on it to see what it looks like in-focus)

Books I mention in this podcast:

My Struggle, Books 1 & 2, by Karl Ove Knausgaard

Euphoria by Lily King

Double Wedding Ring Quilts: Traditions Made Modern by Victoria Findlay Wolfe

Movie: Mrs. Palfrey at the Claremont, with the wonderful Joan Plowright

Victoria Findlay Wolfe’s blog: http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.com/

A good post about decluttering your sewing space from The Bitchy Sticher:

http://thebitchystitcher.blogspot.com/

14 Replies to “Episode 168: The Front Porch Episode”

  1. THE cicadas are taking over your podcast …. have not heard that noise in years …ours our usually on the 17 year cycle.

    SORRY to hear about your friend Dave I will keep him in my prayers.

    https://nonniequiltingdreams.wordpress.com/2015/08/08/podcast-list-updated-august-2015/

    Here is my list of podcasters I follow and I recently updated it … New to the list is ME BEING CRAFTY >>> http://mebeingcrafty.libsyn.com/rss >> I am now following her on TWITTER …. hoping to make her a TWILTER.

    TSONIKI is a native AMERICAN who lives on post in Germany with her husband who is active military. I just discovered her podcast and am working my way thru the last several years. She interviews people in the creative community , mostly sewists, quilter and bloggers. She discusses process and how they create and make money with their crafts and their life. So far I have found this to be an informative and fun podcast. ( I have only listed to about 6 of her podcast episodes and have about 40 more to listen to.)

    OTHER PODCAST I d/l are

    BRAINS ON SCIENCE … pdC for kids
    Dan Carlin Hard Core History
    NOVA science now
    all of the STUFF YOU …. missed in history , tech talk, you should know series…. you name it you they have it

    QUICK AND DIRTY TIPS ….. nutrition diva and tech talk… They do have more topics but these two are my favorites.

  2. Yes on the Bali Pops precuts! They are consistently badly cut. Never buying them again. Cut a whole bunch of 5″ squares to mix with the off-white batik 5″ squares, only to discover they were at best 4.5″ and none actually square. Infuriating.

  3. http://mebeingcrafty.libsyn.com/rss >> I have been discovering a whole new group of CREATIVE and QUILTING BLOGGERS by going thru this podcast … added them to my blog reader … finding a lot of inspiration. fun listening too.

    Leah Day has a new class coming out starting tomorrow 8/10/15 >> The Free Motion Effect: Designing Custom Quilting

    ON her blog there will be a one day sign up for 50% off… YES I am planning to sign up … love her classes and learn alot.

    It’s a class all about deciding which designs to use on your quilts and how to apply them to the quilt surface. It’s a class geared to quilting on a home sewing machine with lots of tips for managing bulk and most importantly – designing your quilt so it’s easy to finish quickly.

  4. Hi Frances! Miss Potter is my favorite comfort movie. It must be very containing. When she is painting while narrating, the world feels right. When Noni wrote the cicadas were taking over your podcast I laughed. Our wild parrots get loud but just for maybe 30 minutes in the am and pm. You sounded like your were podcasting from deep in the Amazon. (Or how the movies make it sound.)

    My favorite crafty blogs for just lovely content are nanaCompany and Pretty by Hand. They don’t blog often but their posts make you want to do something. I very much like http://www.gonewiththewynns for travel dreams – not crafty – but wonderful, too.

  5. In my opinion, the best knitting podcast is The Knitting Pipeline with Paula. She has over 200 episodes and they are all excellent.

    I’m sorry to hear about your friend Dave. I will remember him and his family in prayer.

  6. Hi Frances,
    I agree with you on your thoughts on the colors in Jelly Rolls/fabric lines, especially about the odd sock fabric color. I would encourage you to follow my rule, which is to remove 20% of the fabrics and replace them with your own choices. This will make the quilt your own, especially if you use a French General pattern. It will also allow you to ensure that you have the right amount of lights and darks. Often Jelly Rolls (fabrics lines) are predominantly mediums and that makes the quilt too blendy. Of course, you may want a super blendy look.

    I think there might be an error in your blogroll. KellyV’s blog link gives me an error when I click on it. Let me know if it is just me. 😉

    It isvery hard to lose someone. I am very sorry to hear about your friend Dave. I am thinking about him and his family.

    I think that you described the ‘trajectory’ of blogs/podcasts really well. I was looking at my blog list (set up on Feedly when Google Reader disappeared) and wondering why I picked some of hte blogs to include. You really described it well. My interests have changed; the writer/podcaster’s interests have changed. It was kind of liek you gave me permission to eliminate some that I was feeling bad about. Thanks. I would like to recommend a really great blog to you: artquiltmaker.com/blog. She has tutorials and book reviews and lots of information about her own projects! You would love it. She also recently did a review on the Double Wedding Ring quilt book you mentioned. You can find the review at: http://www.artquiltmaker.com/blog/2015/07/book-review-double-wedding-ring-quilts/ . Search ‘mosaic quilting’ on her blog to find out about making your own fabric. 😛

    I read the Victoria Findlay Wolfe book as well. I really liked her descriptions of process and her encouragement to play, make a mess, cut it up and do it over. I haven’t read her first book, but may try to check it out of the library. I signed up to take her DWR class at QuiltCon, so I will be sure and let you know how that is.

    You inspired me to declutter. I cleared out half of my closet and all the bottom of the coat closet. I have my eye on an underbed box that I don’t even remember packing. Thanks!

    I really like Sarah Addison Allen’s books, but there are times when I am definitely in the mood for the. I have liked all of them, but I don’t think the Peach Keeper was very strong. It was well written and interesting. Perhaps I need to read it again. My favorite book of hers and one of my favorites of all time, I think, is The Girl Who Chased the Moon. I understand more and more of it the more I read it. I try to limit myself to reading it only 1x per year.

    I really like your podcast. You always sound happy, which makes me happy. Have a great week.

  7. Another wonderful episode! I have that book Fifteen Minutes of Play. I must confess that I have not used it much since I got it–but you have inspired me to pull it out!

    I forgot about the Angry Chicken! I pop in and out of that one as well. Another I agree with Kelly V about NanaCompany and Pretty by Hand. Both do beautiful work.

    I might also suggest Minki’s Worktable at MinkiKim.com.

    I’m so sorry to hear about your friend Dave. I’m sure that your quilt will make him feel loved and cherished. I love the colors.

  8. At the end of this podcast you asked what we were listening to and if we had new blogs we might be following. I just subscribed to an RV podcast because we finally purchased an RV, after having been RV-less for four years. lol

    I am also reading a new blog called: Curvy Sewing Collective. (http://curvysewingcollective.com/). I don’t do much in the way of sewing clothes due to fitting challenges. I AM curvy though, so I am picking up some hints and tips through this blog.

    I may have missed it, but I didn’t hear mention of the Dresden Plate Project. Sadly, no one is posting photos at the flickr site either. I fear it is dead in the water. I am still posting each Sunday, or Monday at the latest. It has kept me on track, even though progress is sometimes slow. The deadline is still December 10th if anyone is interested.

    So sorry to hear about your friend. The quilt is lovely though and I am sure he will appreciate it.

    In very hot Arkansas….over 30 days of temps in the upper 90’s with the humidity high in the 80’s for the heat indexes of 100-115. Autumn can come any time! Your outdoors sounds like ours with the cicada bugs.

    I too have a son who will be hard to get up for school, starting next week. He is going into 9th grade. I am trying to sleep in as much as I can this week…enjoying this last lazy part of summer!

    GREAT hearing your podcast today!
    Happy Sewing Y’all!
    Sherri

  9. Hi Frances, I’ve enjoyed your podcast for a long time, but not sure if I’ve ever commented. It’s always great to hear a new episode!

    Other podcasts I listen to (pretty much) faithfully:
    Quilting…for the Rest of Us – I know that’s not a new one to you 🙂
    Stuff You Should Know – thumbs up to Nonnie on that one
    Vegetarian Zen – I’m a newbie veg-head and Vickie and Larissa are fun to listen to

    I’m jumping on the declutter bandwagon – sewing room has become a wreck! (how did that happen?!?)

    Thanks for the great podcasts! I love hearing your updates.

    Angela

  10. I had to smile when you talked about temperatures coming down to 86. In the next few days, the temperatures here are going climb to over 30 (celsius), which means about 86 – 90 F and the health department has issued a heat advisory!! I’m in Calgary, Alberta, in the shadow of the Rockies, so our average summer day is usually around 22 C, or 70 F. Needless to say, we don’t handle our heat very well.

    The tubular skylight is a great idea. My parents had one, and it was like having a bright light on! I would go to leave the room, and want to switch it off, then remember it was a skylight. You do need a good installer, though. I was in a house where leaves and other gunk had fallen into the skylight and it looked awful.

  11. Hi Frances. Just got back from a week in Palm Springs where it was 114 degrees and the cicadas were crazy loud. Must be the time of year. Thanks for the podcast. Thoroughly enjoyable. Aqjaye mentioned QuiltCon 2016. I am also signed up and very excited to go. Wish you could come. No book tours to California planned? Would be soooooo fun to see you.

  12. I’m a new listener and just finished listening to episode 168 where you talk about the inaccuracy of precuts. Ironically, I was working on a quilt using Bali Pops and felt I needed to chime in on how inaccurately they were cut. The strips varied as much as a 1/4″ and were not cut straight. I understand the convenience of using precuts but not if you need to trim/fix most of the strips. Unfortunately, it is not the only precut that I have used that has been inaccurate. You are the first person that I heard talk about the inaccuracy of precuts. Kudos to you!

  13. I’m not sure if this was the right episode to comment to, but my favorite comfort(?) shows are the British mystery ones. Morse, Inspector Lewis, Foyle’s War. I love to watch them over and over again while sewing. And Star Wars 😀
    It’s so nice listening to the cicadas in the middle of January, although I’m the person who likes winter! Yay for snow! 🙂
    I can’t wait for your books to come out!

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